Coaling Ship
After the Christmas festivities had ended the next few days involved all the hands with bringing on coal.
Coal was often referred to as “black diamonds”. This was the ships sole source of power.
Ships would commonly enter port and take on coal every two weeks and “coaling ship” was a dirty, labour intensive task in which the entire crew participated. It could take several days to coal a ship.
Sailors usually had an old set of clothes or fatigues and a special hat they wore during coaling.
The crew commonly sang songs during their work or listened to members of the ships band to keep themselves distracted from the task at hand.
Afterward the crew would spend several more days cleaning the ship, inside and out, fore and aft, since coal dust settled everywhere.
A member of the “black gang” (i.e. those working in the fire room below decks) on the USS Connecticut described “coaling ship” like this:
“Our ship held about 2,000 tons of the stuff. All the deckhands would go down into the collier (coal supply ship) and fill these big bags with about 500 pounds. Then they’d hoist ‘em over to us down in the coal bunkers and we’d spread out the coal with shovels until all the bunkers – about 20 – were full to the top”
A picture of members of the Black gang stoking the coal burning power plants.
The challenge of undertaking this operation in Trinidad was that the temperature was typically 90 degrees causing the crews to rotate the men in the coal bunkers regularly to prevent heat related injuries.
Therefore after working in the bunkers swimming from the ship in Trinidad was popular.
The next instalment will cover the departure of the Fleet from Port of Spain.
Regards
Sean
